The Disabled God: Towards a Liberatory Theology of Disability

Christian Century, Oct 8, 1997 by Nancy Bauer-King

By Nancy L. Eiesland Abingdon, 139 pp., $13.95 paperback.

May you live until the word of your life is fully spoken." This benediction, which points to the importance of being heard, came to my mind while I was reading these books. Nancy Eiesland, whose doctoral work at Emory University was in ethics and society, writes out of her experience of lifelong disability. Her words call the church to be a body of justice for people with disabilities. Eiesland terms her theology "liberatory" and views the disabled as a minority group. By proposing an image of a disabled God, she offers a creative and redemptive response to the barriers which keep the disabled isolated and feeling responsible for their own condition.

Eiesland carefully prepares the reader for the image of the disabled God. She discusses scriptural and social paradigms that contribute to and perpetuate cultural barriers and then explores the implications of seeing the resurrected Christ as the disabled God. She cites Luke 24:36-39 (an appearance of the risen Christ to the disciples) to support her claim:

Here is the resurrected Christ making

good on the incarnational

proclamation that God would be with

us, embodied as we are. . . . In

presenting his impaired hands and

feet . . . Jesus is revealed as the

disabled God, . . . underscoring the

reality that full personhood is fully

compatible with the experience of

disability.

For Eiesland, this image is a divine affirmation of the wholeness of nonconventional bodies. The acceptance of such an image affirms the right of the disabled to full participation in the community of faith and implies the necessity of making the church accessible to them.

Eiesland takes the American Lutheran Church (now the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) to task for its 1986 decision to bar from ordination those with "significant" physical or mental handicaps. She uses the decision as a focus for discussing the barriers within church institutions. The worst barrier, she claims, is people's attitudes, and the first step toward empowerment is to include the disabled in dialogue and decision-making. Eiesland is a powerful voice in such a dialogue.

Whereas Eiesland does not include personal reflection, Nancy Mairs invites readers to "be lowered and steadied into what may be unfamiliar . . . but not inhospitable space." She asks us to view life from her wheelchair--"waist-high in the world." Mairs discusses her sexual desires, fears of helplessness, avoidance of conflict with family members, and the hard choices which must be made. At times her words are almost too intimate. Yet her words offer a great gift to the reader. She reminds us that "life itself is imperfect," and with grace and humor reveals the possibility of living a full life even with multiple sclerosis.

Over and over Mairs provides concrete illustrations of issues Eiesland raises. She echoes Eiesland's claim that the biggest barrier for the disabled is being defined as "outsiders." Mairs calls for the disabled to be defined by what they do, not by their limitations. "The last thing I need are limits!"

Though Mairs begins by stating that "she cannot begin to write this book," as she faces her resistance and explores her crippled condition she identifies reasons for writing it. "Maps render foreign territory . . . fathomable. I mean to make a map." Her task, she decides, "is to conceptualize not merely a habitable body, but a habitable world: a world that wants me in it."

Mairs considers herself neither a brave heroine nor an object of pity. She sees her life as an adventure. When faced with the option of grieving over her condition or enjoying her life the way it is given, she chooses joy. In so doing, Mairs illustrates the possibility for the full life that Eiesland proposes. Both writers are examples of women who are at the same time wounded and whole. I want them both in my world until the words of their lives are fully spoken.

Reviewed by Nancy Bauer-King pastor of spiritual formation at Trinity United Methodist Church in Racine, Wisconsin.